Gastric cancer (GC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths. It is known to be a heterogeneous disease with several molecular and histological subtypes. Here we perform whole-genome sequencing of 49 GCs with diffuse (N ¼ 31) and intestinal (N ¼ 18) histological subtypes and identify three mutational signatures, impacting TpT, CpG and TpCp[A/T] nucleotides. The diffuse-type GCs show significantly lower clonality and smaller numbers of somatic and structural variants compared with intestinal subtype. We further divide the diffuse subtype into one with infrequent genetic changes/low clonality and another with relatively higher clonality and mutations impacting TpT dinucleotide. Notably, we discover frequent and exclusive mutations in Ephrins and SLIT/ROBO signalling pathway genes. Overall, this study delivers new insights into the mutational heterogeneity underlying distinct histologic subtypes of GC that could have important implications for future research in the diagnosis and treatment of GC.
Despite the benefits from adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, approximately one-third of stage II gastric cancer (GC) patients developed recurrences. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a prognostic algorithm for gastric cancer (GCPS) that can robustly identify high-risk group for recurrence among stage II patients. A multi-step gene expression profiling study was conducted. First, a microarray gene expression profiling of archived paraffin-embedded tumor blocks was used to identify candidate prognostic genes (N = 432). Second, a focused gene expression assay including prognostic genes was used to develop a robust clinical assay (GCPS) in stage II patients from the same cohort (N = 186). Third, a predefined cut off for the GCPS was validated using an independent stage II cohort (N = 216). The GCPS was validated in another set with stage II GC who underwent surgery without adjuvant treatment (N = 300). GCPS was developed by summing the product of Cox regression coefficients and normalized expression levels of 8 genes (LAMP5, CDC25B, CDK1, CLIP4, LTB4R2, MATN3, NOX4, TFDP1). A prospectively defined cut-point for GCPS classified 22.7% of validation cohort treated with chemoradiotherapy (N = 216) as high-risk group with 5-year recurrence rate of 58.6% compared to 85.4% in the low risk group (hazard ratio for recurrence = 3.16, p = 0.00004). GCPS also identified high-risk group among stage II patients treated with surgery only (hazard ratio = 1.77, p = 0.0053).
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